iCloset
by Snapplelinz
Summary: Carly's new walk-in-closet malfunctions and she needs Freddie's help to fix it. Just a lil' something cukey for the Creddie lovers out there. Part of the creddiefans "New Room, New Romance" fanfic challenge.


**Author's Note: Greetings to all in Fanfiction Land, I trust that you are all well. The summary's pretty self-explanatory, so no long-winded speech this time. Hope you all like this : )**

**Disclaimer: I do not own iCarly or Carly Shay's hot room (I'm really bummed about that).  
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Carly stared around her new bedroom, awe reflected in her brown eyes. It was a good 24 hours after Spencer, Gibby, Sam and Freddie had made the big reveal about the renovations they'd done to her charred bedroom. This was all just too good to be true. Carly couldn't believe how awesome her room looked. Everything from the walk-in-closet, the ice-cream love seat, the dressing table with built-in blow dryer down to the duvet on her bed was innately her own style. She really did have the best brother and friends in the whole wide world. And the best part? She didn't have to continue working at the Groovy Smoothie with T-Bo and his kooky 'Juice Report'.

She had been happily picking out a cute outfit from her new closet when a sudden glitch in the mechanism happened. The conveyor belt inside the closet (which carried all her clothing on hangers) had gotten stuck in the midst of a rotation and interfered with the closet door's opening and closing sequence. Carly only had a second of warning to dive out of harm's way, otherwise she would've ended up trapped inside her own closet for an indefinite amount of time before Spencer got home from Socko's.

Now she was pacing around her bedroom floor, waiting for Freddie to get home from one of his AV Club meetings after school. She had already texted him and asked him to stop by to have a look at her closet. After all, he had been the one who had set up the conveyor belt and sliding door for the closet, so he'd know best how to fix it. It was close to 6pm and Carly began biting her nails, thinking of the cute skirt she wanted to wear that was still trapped in her walk-in closet. Then she jumped slightly when she heard a knock on her bedroom door. Frowning, she moved towards the door and opened it, seeing Freddie standing in the hallway.

"Hey." He greeted brightly.

"Hey. Uh, what are you doing here?" Carly asked in a quizzical tone.

"Uh, you asked me to come over and take a look at your closet." Freddie offered knowingly.

"I know. What I meant is – why didn't you just come downstairs from your own apartment?" Carly asked curiously, staring past Freddie into the lonely hallway, which led up to the floor above Carly's bedroom, where the iCarly studio was located.

"I was trying to save time. I just got home, but I left my toolbox on this floor. So I thought I'd just come straight up here." Freddie explained succinctly.

"You keep your toolbox in the hallway? Why not just keep it in your own apartment?" Carly asked in bewilderment, standing aside to let Freddie into her bedroom.

"Yeah, with my mom's love for forks, knives, jackhammers and open-toed shoes, that would go down well. I keep it in a store-room on this floor and just sneak it down to my bedroom while my mom's out if anything ever needs fixing in the apartment." Freddie responded cleverly.

"Sneaky," Carly praised with a small smile.

"Mind if I put my stuff here?" Freddie asked politely, gesturing with his finger towards Carly's water coffee table with the floating boats.

"Sure, go ahead." Carly replied readily.

She quickly shifted the vase with flowers over to make room. Then Carly watched in fascination as Freddie laid his toolbox on the glass surface and carefully took out several tools that she couldn't identify for the moment. Freddie made use of a stopper to keep the closet door open so he could get started.

"Would you mind giving me a hand with taking your clothes out of your closet? I wanna take a closer look at the conveyor belt so I can figure out how to fix it." Freddie explained casually.

"Ok." Carly agreed.

Freddie had to suppress a grin at Carly taking out each item of clothing one at a time and laying it out neatly on her bed. She really was adorable when she was trying to be organised. It took them about 5 minutes before the closet was completely free of clothing. Then when he had selected what he needed for the job, Freddie knelt down in front of Carly's closet and began unscrewing the nails on the circuit board inside the closet, which controlled the electricity for the conveyor belt and the door. He stared at the naked wires for a good long while, trying to decipher which ones had short-circuited the automatic mechanisms of the closet. When Carly got bored with Freddie staring pensively at a bunch of colourful wires, she took to filing her nails and even painting them a pearly pink colour while sitting on her loveseat.

After about 15 minutes, Carly looked up from her fingers and watched Freddie intently. He had rolled up the sleeves of his rugby sweater and was currently wiping sweat off his brow with the back of his hand while he worked. Carly couldn't help noticing that Freddie's shirt (one he had purchased nearly a year ago) looked a lot tighter on him, more so than usual now that he had started hitting the gym regularly. Even from this angle, she could make out the perfect indentations of his chiselled arm muscles beneath the cotton material. To distract herself, Carly went right back to inspecting her handiwork with her nails, ignoring the sudden burn in her cheeks.

"Carly?" Freddie called out unexpectedly in a muffled voice.

"Freddie?" Carly asked in confusion, looking up and realising that Freddie was hunched over somewhere in her closet.

He exited the closet a second later, a screw driver in hand.

"I've re-routed the circuit board so that the conveyor belt works again. Could you do me a favour and check to see if the touch-screen to open the closet is working now?" Freddie asked cordially.

"You don't wanna just check yourself?" Carly questioned bewilderedly.

"Well…it's your closet." Freddie remarked in an abashed tone.

"Besides, if it isn't working, then I've gotta get back in there and try again and I might need you on stand-by in case I lock myself in the closet." He added more confidently with a teasing smirk on his face, causing Carly to chuckle.

"I don't know how much help I'd be if you get locked in my closet, but I'll certainly do my best." Carly offered genuinely.

"That's all I ask." Freddie replied, matching her tone.

Then the both of them took a step back to avoid the sliding closet door.

"Ok, here goes. Hit the switch." Freddie commanded more seriously.

Carly pressed the button on the touch-screen and nothing happened. She tried a second time and the result was exactly the same.

"That's not good, right?" she asked softly of Freddie.

"Not really. Just step back for a second, I'm gonna take another look." Freddie advised grimly.

Carly acquiesced and stood with her arms folded across her chest while Freddie took another look in her closet to locate the problem.

"Ok, I see what I did wrong. I forgot to pull the lever anti-clockwise on the conveyor belt before you hit the switch. Back up for a second, Carly, I need a little room." Freddie instructed while bending over in the closet once more.

Carly stifled a giggle when she heard Freddie straining and moaning audibly.

"You ok in there, Freddie?" Carly asked as calmly as possible without laughing.

"Yeah, I'm good. Just giving my muscles a work out." Freddie wheezed from inside the closet.

"Are you sure you don't need some help?" Carly pressed when Freddie continued straining against the lever he was trying to pull.

"Nah, it's ok, Carly. I've got this." Freddie responded hurriedly.

Using both hands and a dry rag, Freddie grabbed hold of the lever (which was slippery because of the sweat on his hands) and really put his back into it. With the help of the dry rag, the lever began moving in the direction Freddie wanted to.

"See, it's starting to move! I told you I've got this!" Freddie exclaimed triumphantly.

But because of the added force he had applied to this particular attempt, the motion of heaving with all his strength and pulling the lever towards him happened quicker than anticipated, sending him flying backwards.

"No, I don't got this!" Freddie yelled out in alarm.

Carly, who had been in the midst of moving forward to give Freddie a hand anyway, caught the brunt of him falling back against her. Then they both hurtled backwards over the stairs, en route towards yet another obstacle installed in Carly's bedroom.

"No, the trampoline!" Carly shrieked in horror.

But the warning came far too late as both she and Freddie rocketed onto the extra-bouncy trampoline and catapulted haphazardly into the air before crashing onto Carly's bed in a heap amongst her clothing. Freddie, who had landed on top of Carly, rolled off of her with a loud groan.

"You ok, Carly?" Freddie asked in concern while staring down at her.

He was relieved to see that she was giggling loudly.

"I think so," she answered laughingly while rubbing the back of her head, checking for bumps and bruises.

"Ow, hanger!" Freddie wailed unexpectedly, taking a wooden hanger out from underneath him that he accidentally sat on, making Carly laugh even harder.

"I knew you didn't have it," Carly teased, referring to the conveyor belt lever.

"Nothing gets past you, Carly Shay." Freddie noted with a grimace while massaging his lower back.

"Now I get why you and Sam tested out the trampoline yesterday. That was kind of fun." Carly pointed out in an even tone.

"Yeah, it would've been more fun if Sam hadn't jumped on top of me." Freddie retorted dryly.

"Point taken." Carly agreed with a grin on her face.

Then she glanced around her and let out a loud sigh.

"What's up?" Freddie asked in concern while looking intently at her.

"I don't think I'll be able to wear my cute skirt now." Carly replied wryly.

"How come?" Freddie questioned curiously.

"Because I'm sitting on it right now and the material's really delicate. I'm gonna have to iron it again before I can wear it, and I'm really not in the mood to do it now." Carly responded with a weary chuckle.

"Sorry. If it helps, you look beautiful no matter what you wear." Freddie answered truthfully while leaning on his elbow and staring down at Carly.

Carly smiled brightly while her eyes locked on Freddie's.

"Thanks, Freddie. You're so sweet, for coming over and for saying that." Carly replied sincerely while looking up at him.

"Anything for you, Lipsie." Freddie replied with a small smile.

The mention of one of Carly's nicknames brought back a host of memories. On the first occasion, Spencer had called her that when he caught her and Griffin making out in the living room. On the other occasion, Carly had been relaying the same story to Freddie. That had been right after Freddie's accident with the taco truck and he had been sitting on one of the futons in the iCarly studio with Carly sitting gingerly on his lap so as not to put any weight on the cast on his leg.

She had craned her neck around to stare at Freddie while she told him the story about Spencer irrationally grounding her 'for-till college'. The look on Freddie's face had been a mixture of amusement and adoration while he listened contently to Carly's story. Pretty much the same way he was currently staring at her, except without any words passing between them. Had it really been so long ago when Carly had looked at him the exact same way? With him lying so close to her, she was beginning to forget why it was that they had broken up in the first place.

The fact that Freddie called her 'Lipsie' on occasions just to get a reaction out of her had almost become an endearing quality in itself, making Carly smile every time she thought of that moment in the iCarly studio. Then Freddie's eyes drifted down towards her lips and Carly felt certain that she had lost the thread of why they were lying on her bed right then and there on a pile of clothing.

Her heart was literally in her throat when Freddie leant over her slowly and gently moved to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. Now he was impossibly close to her and he knew it too; there was nothing for it but to change the distance altogether to resolve the sudden tension in the air.

Carly lifted her head at about the same time as Freddie's head bent lower and their lips finally united after a long absence. Freddie's hand went to the back of Carly's neck and cupped it gently while his mouth danced across the contours of her luscious lips. Carly moaned against Freddie's lips, grabbing handfuls of his sweater bunched up in her fists and pulling him till he was lying on top of her. Then Freddie's hands moved towards Carly's face as if to frame it while he laid tender kisses all along her collarbone and pulse points till she was trembling beneath him. God, he had missed this, missed her.

This was very different to the last time they had kissed; Carly had initiated every single one of those kisses because Freddie hadn't been able to use his hands then. Now he was using everything he had, making Carly feel safe and at ease beneath his touch. She had never wanted this to end, and now she knew exactly what she wanted for all the right reasons. Her eyes opened wide a few seconds later when she realised that Freddie had stopped kissing her, his face crumpled with sudden sadness.

"What's wrong?" she asked slowly.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that." Freddie answered forlornly, looking away from Carly for the first time since they landed on the bed together.

Carly nodded, a similar expression appearing on her face.

"Well in that case, I'm sorry too." She declared calmly.

Freddie was taken completely by surprise when Carly pulled his face to hers and began kissing him of her own volition. This time, there was no caution, no guilt, no pausing to weigh out the pros and cons, only desperation and impatience. Freddie opened his mouth wider, letting Carly's insistent tongue slip inside, dragging him down slowly, getting just as caught up in the whirlwind of her desire. Freddie gasped in surprise when Carly shifted both their bodies so that she was now lying on top of him, her hands wrapped tightly around his neck. When she finally stopped kissing him, he was relieved to see a glowing smile etched on her face.

"What about your closet?" Freddie asked, utterly perplexed.

"You already fixed it. After that, anything else is possible." Carly answered seriously, feeling more emboldened by the second.

A bright smile appeared on Freddie's face while he tenderly cupped the side of Carly's face. Then her lips were on his once more and they picked up right where they left off, wrinkling the rest of Carly's cute outfits underneath them, the walk-in closet standing idly open.

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**Author's: Told you this one would be cukey to the max ; ) I need two things from all of you: reviews and votes, because I refuse to come runner-up to wannabe1980 again. I'm just kidding, wannabe's awesome and so are her stories (lol). But I wouldn't mind some reviews, so pretty please? Stay fly, I'm off to take a nap. **


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